Aircraft seating for passengers is most efficiently laid out with all passengers seated side by side, with all passenger seats facing forward. A typical aircraft passenger seat comprises a set of supports anchored to a cabin floor, whereupon is secured a seat bottom securing a seat cushion. The seat cushion is a critical aspect of passenger orientation on the seat itself. The top surface of the seat cushion declines rearward from a front edge to a back edge of the seat cushion so that a passenger is urged against a curved seat back when seated. The change in elevation may be slight (such as about one inch change in elevation for coach seats) or may be very accentuated (2-4 inches for executive or first class seats). Seat declination in aircraft passenger seating serves a safety function, in that a passenger is less likely to be ejected from the seat when a safety belt is secured across the passenger's lap. As such, seat declination from front to rear on the seat cushion is a essential aspect of aircraft passenger seating.
A cost of efficiency in aircraft passenger seating layout is that most passengers do find it preferable. Arranging the seats side by side and front to back creates a perception of a space that is cramped and confining. In response, some aircraft manufacturers have created a space-inefficient solution in placing two aircraft passenger seats face to face, one facing to the front of the aircraft and one facing a rear of the aircraft. The two seats are necessarily spaced apart by a substantial distance to prevent stretched legs of two face to face passengers from contacting each other. The very purpose of providing two face to face seats is for luxury and comfort. It would do little good to provide such face to face seats where the occupants were interfering with each other's leg space. Similarly, the very structure of the seats themselves should provide an above average level of postural and cushioning comfort to complement the luxury appointments of the face to face seating arrangement. As such, the seat cushions of face to face aircraft passenger seats typically provide very substantial cushioning and a rather substantial seat cushion rearward declination to match.
Thus, the current state of the art in providing a luxury level of comfort with two aircraft passenger seats facing each other is well known to create a substantial distance between the two facing seats and to provide each seat with a fairly deep rearward declination of the seat cushion surface with relatively soft cushion material.
Long flights induce passengers to nap or to sleep for long periods of time. Even the most luxurious of aircraft have generally failed to provide a sleeping surface where a typical adult can stretch out their full length and rest on a horizontal surface. When such a horizontal surface is described herein, it refers to a surface generally horizontal with a cabin floor of the aircraft. The prior art has offered solutions which appear to be impractical or excessively expensive. A simple solution has been to eliminate seats in favor of a space long enough to install a bed structure. The amount of horizontal space required for installation of a bed structure in an aircraft has made this solution impractical. Equally impractical has been adaptation of aircraft passenger seats so that mechanical manipulation results in a bed structure. The high cost of aircraft passenger seats, i.e., usually from $20,000 to $40,000, requires an undue investment in a mechanically convertible passenger seat or seats, an investment which may not be recoverable or which may dissuade the business jet purchaser from making such an investment.
An unfortunate feature of mechanically convertible seats in the prior art to form a bed structure has been their lack of comfort. The articulated and segmented nature of aircraft passenger seats into at least two major curved surfaces, i.e., the seat back and the seat cushion, prevents their use in forming a flat bed surface. Moving these two parts of an aircraft passenger seat into a pseudo-flat surface eliminates the ability of a passenger to lay on their side or stomach, in that the surfaces are formed in to conform to a human back and seat.
There is a need for a device which quickly and inexpensively transforms aircraft passenger seating into a horizontal bed surface adapted to provide a user with a flat surface upon which a user may lie on their back, side or stomach.